Senior Capstone Cultural Response: Sweeney Todd

This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to be among the crowd at the first showing of Shepherd's Musical Deparment's rendition of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In this post I'll go over my experience.

First I'll go over the visual aspects. Visually the play wasn't particularly striking, but the costumes and set design all worked well in conveying the atmosphere. Many of the set pieces were used for multiple settings, which broke the immersion for me at different points. The pieces were very large however, so it made sense that they'd be hard to move around, or fit other pieces off stage to bring in. The costumes used color vividly, and communicated the idea of life itself, as was demonstrated in the second act as many of the townspeople wore clothes with little or no color. As Sweeney and Mrs Lovett came into their fortunes and their lives took off, the rest of the townsfolk seemed to have their lives drained from them. The makeup for Sweeney's sunken in features as well as the dirt on many of the poorer folk did an excellent job in adding depth and realism to their looks. The actors all looked their parts very well, being cast into roles that really complimented each performers' traits. All in all the visuals were well put together and they added a nice level of dreariness to the play.

The sound of the play, being a musical/operatic sort of production is easily the most important factor. For the most part the sung pieces and music all came through clearly, and the instruments worked with the voices to create a unique sound that often left me with chills. The use of an exceptionally loud train whistle at various points to emphasize moments of insanity in the play was disorienting and it made me jump every time. My only real complaint was the chorus voices. When the chorus would sing, I had trouble understanding what the lyrics were. Only when key members sung on their own did the words become clear, but otherwise it all got muddled. I'm not sure if it was because of the sound equipment or if it was due to the combination of the pitches, tones, and volumes, but either way it made a couple of the smaller plot points a little harder to understand.

I didn't want to spend time going over the story, because unless the director decides to make significant changes to it (in this case they did not) the story will not change. Sweeney Todd is Sweeney Todd. I had actually never seen the play (or the movie) before. I had a wonderful time, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the production. I'd encourage anyone who enjoys theater, musical theater, or dark humor to look into this show. But be ready for that train whistle.